FLOOD03953

• County: Larimer
• Community: Fort Collins
• Stream Name: Cache La Poudre River
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Floodplain Information
• Date: 10/1/1973
• Prepared For: Larimer County
• Prepared By: US Army Corps of Engineers
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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j

Table}
FI~PeJkStJqes"ndDi5ch"r<1e5
Cache la "'olJdrc f1iver.!J

Yedr Oate
1883 22 J~ne
11)84 20r-ay
11191 9 Juno
1900 29 I'lly
1901 " '"
1904 20 ~'ay
1909 " June
1914 2 June
1917 23 June
1918 20 June
1921 0 June
1923 15 June
1924 " Juno
1930 " "by
193R 22 Juno
1949 5 Juno

"eakDischJrqe.
c.t.s.

;,-t_"qe, Ft.

5.6

7,90'.1
6,850
21,000

5,C0::1

7,'

12,00-')
Y

5,900
5,380
7,000
5,200
5,230

5,5
U
5,6
5,0
7,'
C9
7,'

8,550
7,440
10,200
("ISO
6,09(1

6.4

u

1/

PeaK discharges in excoss of 5,000 c.f.~., fr~ U. s. r~olOGlc31
Survey Water Supply Popors, ~Jqe ot mouth at c~ryon up~trnn~ fr~
FortCQllins.

2/

C"used ~y /a i lure of Chaolier5 L~k" D<r1.

51

Gr(j3terth3n 13911100d.

u

Flood Joser rp~ lon5

Among the first descriptions of floods on the Cache 13
Poudre River Is " letter ~ritten by Antoine Janis, a F~cnch t~a~rer on
the ~iver ~~r tho rresent site of La~crte. He ~rote:

"Q~ t~e first day of J"rtO 1844, I stuck my stoke On a clah in
the v~ Iley . . . . At that time the st~ea'TlS '",or" a II very high."

An exf~a he~vy 5rtNpack ~uOm8nte<1 by a r~ln~torm On 9 June 1864 resulted
in furthe~ flooding on the C~che la Poud~e Rlve~. Hlsto~IBn Ansel Wat~ou5
wrote of the 1864 flood:

"Fort Colli ns . . . . C>les its o~i'li nand first place 00 the
map to the InterventIon of a flood in the CaChe la Poud~e Rlve~. This
flood occurred on the last days of '~y and fl~sf days of June 1854 an~
Issaldto have been the worst KllOrln by white rnen, He water ....
I nundated the va Iley f~om , luff ~o bluff with a to"'~ent that car~ied
Ewerythlng not firmly attached to the sol I with It.

"I t ca~~led out the toll brldgo ~t Laporte at 1l titTle when the
ClOvcment of emig~ntlon '",es1wa~d stalled on the b luff~ south 01
L~Do~te. On the 9th of June, an e)(t~aordlna"'y ~alnsto~m s8t
jnon thewot8rShed of tne uppor part of theriver,,.,eitedthesnC>l
In the higher altitudos and an enormous volume OT wahr laden with
drlft.;ood, poured into the "I~o"~v ,",,0 lien channel, a~~ the su' len
roar 01 the rvshirlg stream a~ it bU~5t out of t~e canyon '~as ~eard
for a long distance. On reach I og the pia ins, the ~ater wread out
and suo merged the bottom larxlsfromblufftoblufttoaderthof
"overal feet. The storm occurred in the afternoon and the raging
torront swoptdcwnthroughth"soldierS'Car:'p(atLnporte) in
the night" lmost 'd Ithout w ar"n I ng . the cam~gro~nd" wore com~ I eto) I '/
sl!-Jmerged and o"ly t!;e roofs of to" C~J i ns . . . wore v isl:. 18 . . .

"